Andy Sayers – Blogcriticshttp://blogcritics.org
The critical lens on today's culture & entertainmentSat, 10 Dec 2016 02:19:25 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1DVD Review: Skins – Volume Twohttp://blogcritics.org/dvd-review-skins-volume-two/
http://blogcritics.org/dvd-review-skins-volume-two/#respondSat, 02 May 2009 21:40:44 +0000A little over a month ago, I used this space to sing the praises of the first season of this show. At the time, I remarked on how it was surprisingly intelligent for what seemed like exploitive teen melodrama at first glance. And since I took it upon myself to highly recommend the series to anyone with even a passing affection for the teen drama genre, I felt it was only right to come back and write about how the next ten episodes shaped up. In that spirit, not only will this review be devoid of spoilers for season two, it'll also be devoid of spoilers from season one.

Because it's time to damper whatever enthusiasm my earlier review may have caused. Many of the things I loved about the first nine episodes were absent in the next ten, to the degree that if this is how the show was originally like, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. In many ways, Skins became the show it always presented itself as, without the surprising intelligence that made it something more.

From the beginning, the show flaunted its "adult" themes not usually found in a teen show, with the kids drinking, doing drugs, and having sex. What made it special was how it presented these themes from a teen perspective, without coming off moralistic or exploitive. This season was slightly more exploitive, but the bigger issue was that the stories felt more adult this year, and not just "adult". Usually, "adult" is a euphemism for content people don't want kids to see, but in this instance, the problem wasn't that the series had too much sex (although they may have gone a bit overboard at times with that), but that these kids who were finishing up (the British equivalent of) high school were suddenly burdened with adult concerns.

This often happens on teen shows, when creators decide that realities of being a teen such as having to go to school, not having a lot of money, and living under their parents' roof become a hassle to the stories they want to tell, and suddenly their teen characters are behave like little adults. What had set this show apart in its first season was that its teens acting like teens. True, the adult figures in their lives were often developed only slightly better than the adults in Charlie Brown cartoons, but they existed as elements of their lives, even if they merely served as obstacles. As season two developed, the parental figures were pushed even further into the periphery, or completely eliminated altogether, having the kids inexplicably living on their own, somehow paying for things like rent, food, transcontinental flights, all without any discernible means of income.

Unfortunately, one of the things that made season one feel so rich was how the audience was able to fill in details of these characters lives due to their interactions not only with one another, but also with their parents, to the degree that even when one character suffered the complete absence of parental figures, that absence was felt (resulting in one of the best episodes of the series). As bad as it when other teen shows have their characters stop acting like teens and start acting like younger soap opera characters, you can at least understand that it comes as a result of having actors in their late twenties portraying their fifth year of high school. With Skins, they had actual teens playing characters that have only existed for nine episodes prior to the second season's premiere. Surely there was still plenty of real teen stories to tell before they moved on?

I'm only guessing here, but I think part of the problem was that series creators Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain turned over more writing duties to their young staff. Whereas in season one, they relied on a young writing staff to help flesh out their characters, lending them an air of authenticity, in the second season, they turned over more plotting duties to their young staff. The problem is while teens know better than anyone how they talk, dress, or act, they lack the perspective to really understand how they think. Every teen thinks that they're older and more mature than they actually are, and wish adults would treat them that way (this is a tend that continues to about your mid-twenties, after which people generally think of themselves as younger than they actually are). That's what this season felt like: a bunch of kids play acting at being older than they are, leading to dramatically cliché situations that betrayed the originality of the first season.

But the biggest problem with the second season was that it simply wasn't that much fun. The first season was a much better combination of drama and comedy, with the biggest pleasure coming from the interactions between the core teen characters. With the second season, most of the stories tore the characters apart, rather than allowed them to play off of one another. This problem is exasperated by what used to be a series strength: each episode is presented from the perspective of one character (sometimes two, as in the case of season opener "Tony and Maxxie"). Because the characters didn't interact as much as they did in the season before, what would happen is a big dramatic shift would occur in an episode to the feature character, and then the thread would disappear for awhile as the next episode focused on the next character.

This isolation was heightened in the middle of the season, when the sixth episode featured Tony (Nicholas Hoult) off on a college visit by himself, followed by the seventh episode focusing on his sister Effy (Kaya Scodelario), who only briefly interacts with the main cast, as she runs in her own circle (which will serve as the cast for season three, as the second season is the final season for the original cast). So right in the middle of the season, we basically lose most of the characters and their stories.

Perhaps the best way I can describe my flagging interest in this season is that I quickly absorbed the first season through the course of a weekend, then quickly took in the first six episodes of this season coming off the high of the first season. My interest flagged as the season wore on, to the degree that it probably took me as long to watch the final four episodes of season two than it had taken be to watch the first fifteen of the series. Right when I should have been completely invested in the series, I was basically watching just to see it end.

DVD Review: The second volume of Skins is a three-DVD set presented in the 16:9 format. It also features the somewhat fun, but mostly silly Christmas special that never aired on BBC America, along with five more "Unseen Skins" video shorts. Unlike with volume one, these bonus videos don't seem as much like deleted scenes, but rather seem like specially made viral videos apart from any particular episode. Some come off as oddly experimental, like "Tony's Nightmare" or "Cassandra", while others are silly fun like "Musical Auditions" and "Anwar & Sketch". The best of the five is "When Maxxie Met James", as Maxxie was always an underused character. Overall, none of them (including the Christmas special) are worth buying the set for if you've already seen the season and were as nonplussed as I was.

]]>http://blogcritics.org/dvd-review-skins-volume-two/feed/0Movie Review: Adventurelandhttp://blogcritics.org/movie-review-adventureland1/
http://blogcritics.org/movie-review-adventureland1/#respondFri, 10 Apr 2009 05:26:09 +0000Billed as the follow-up to director Greg Mottola's deliriously funny 2007 film Superbad, I can't help but feel that Adventureland will feel like a disappointment by many coaxed in by the marketing campaign promising more of the same. Anyone going into Adventureland expecting another broad comedy from the guy who did Superbad, featuring Van Wilder, Bill Hader, Kristin Wiig, and the chick from Twilight, may be upset to learn that they were led astray. Because while Adventureland is undoubtedly a comedy, one that manages to be quite funny at times, it's not the film portrayed by its marketing. So be forewarned: even if you loved Superbad, this might not be the film for you.

On the flip side, if you didn't care for Superbad, or never had a desire to see it, then there's a good chance you'll enjoy Adventureland quite a bit. Its humour is more subtle than Mottola's last film, with its lightly comedic tone admirably balancing the fine line between comedy and drama throughout. Set in suburban Pittsburgh in the 1980s, Adventureland is the nostalgic retelling of Mottola's coming of age summer, with Jesse Eisenberg standing in for the director as James Brennan and Kristen Stewart as his first significant love Em Lewin, the girl he meets when forced to work at a dingy amusement park to earn money for school. I saw the film a week ago, enjoying it immensely, with my opinion of the film growing with each passing day as I recall the experience more and more fondly as the contents settle in my brain.

Which is to say that I'm already feeling nostalgic for watching a movie that trades heavily on nostalgia for its low-key charms. It's a lot like one of my all-time favourite films Almost Famous, in that it makes me feel nostalgic for a past I never had, for the universal ways it touches on the experience of being young at a certain time and place. And while I was never a recent college graduate working at an amusement park in 1987, many of the experiences in the film rang true for me, echoing some of my own as a young man a decade later.

I may never have worked as a carny in a rundown amusement park, but I did spend my late high school/early college years working in family fun centres similar to Chuck E. Cheese's. So I could relate to the feeling of working a shitty, go nowhere job for little money, serving terrible people and their terrible kids. It definitely sucked; but oddly, it was still pretty great. Not because there was a lot of fun to be had with the actual job, but rather because places like that require large staffs of people willing to work for minimum wage. No, I don't mean illegal immigrants — I mean young people. Thus, when not dealing with the shit that the job throws at you, you're basically getting paid to hang out with friends, feel superior to your customers, and hook up with co-workers. Which probably explains why I spent so much time at those jobs, even when I wasn't on the clock.

It also partially explains why I loved Adventureland so much, but I think you'll enjoy it even if it didn't mirror some of your life experiences as much as it mirrored my own, as it taps into something elemental about that time of your life. It's infused with a deep sense of melancholy throughout, with enough warmth that it doesn't devolve into an intolerable exercise in vanity or navel-gazing. It can be a tough balancing act when dramatizing your own memories and experiences on screen, and Mottola wisely gives enough of his film over to the supporting cast and setting, rather than making Eisenberg the hero he never got to be in real life. It's been pointed out elsewhere, but it's worth mentioning that this is the second time Eisenberg has been cast as the younger self of the director/writer of the movie he's in (previously playing a semi-fictional version of a young Noah Baumbach in The Squid and the Whale). I enjoyed him a lot more this time out, and not just because his character is less of an intolerable prick.

He and Stewart exhibit enough chemistry to invest in their budding relationship, although the film could've used more on her character. Martin Starr was a highlight as Eisenberg's work buddy Joel, another bookish, harmlessly pretentious character along the lines of his work in Freaks and Geeks and Party Down. Hader and Wiig play characters similar to their work in various films and Saturday Night Live, only with zaniness turned way down. I love them both, but both have the tendency to go too far with the idiosyncrasies of their characters (a danger of live sketch comedy I imagine), but not here. By playing down the craziness in their characters, they achieve the best laugh of the film when finally getting a chance to go off.

Most surprising was Ryan Reynolds as the park stud Mike Connell — a guy who seems like the coolest guy in the film, until you realize that anyone that age still working in such a dead end environment and doing the things he does is actually a loser. Reynolds is able to hint at that disparity beneath his confident air, giving his character a level of self-awareness not typically attributed to his type. In most similar films, Connell would be the villain of the film that our hero James finally puts in his place. In Adventureland, there are no villains: just people who do some shitty things, and the emotional consequences of their actions.

So while it's bad news for people looking for the next Superbad, I wholeheartedly recommend Adventureland to those looking for a coming of age comedy that trades belly laughs for truer emotions. It's a great, warm little film about the best worst job you've ever had, the endless summer we all wish we had, and the awkward phase when your problems were largely small, but felt like the world. It's a past I enjoyed visiting for a couple hours, and I suspect I will revisit again through several future viewings.

]]>http://blogcritics.org/movie-review-adventureland1/feed/0Ten Memorable Episodes of ERhttp://blogcritics.org/ten-memorable-episodes-of-er/
http://blogcritics.org/ten-memorable-episodes-of-er/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2009 16:05:55 +0000This week, the question that has surrounded NBC's venerable medical drama ER for years will be put to rest. That question, of course, being "That show is still on?" Unbelievably (and probably unnecessarily) ER lasted 15 seasons, bursting on the scene in 1994, helping shape network TV drama in the process. I was a huge fan of the show when it debuted, and it remained one of my favourites for years to come.

But, like many people who followed the show, I eventually dropped out. I gave up near the beginning of season twelve, deciding that a show that had none of the lead actors left from its first season (Noah Wyle left at the end of the eleventh season) no longer bore any resemblance to the show I once enjoyed. And really, after a decade, I'd seen all I needed to see (although I did tune a couple weeks ago to see the return of Wyle, Eric La Salle, Julianna Margulies, and that George Clooney guy).

So obviously this list is by no means definitive, although I'm fairly confident that few fans would rank episodes from the final four seasons amongst the show's very best (even if they may have been pretty good). Moreover, I'm working completely from memory here, so it's entirely possible that I'm missing some great episodes. Which is why this titled "Ten Memorable Episodes of ER”, rather than "The Top Ten Episodes of ER”. I watched these episodes as they aired, some again on reruns, and have rewatched the first five seasons (the Clooney years) on DVD (I'll probably keep buying and watching the series on DVD until I no longer enjoy it, which I suspect will be earlier than when I first stopped watching it). So my methodology is a little spotty, but, hey, if I remember an episode, it necessarily qualifies as "memorable" right?

Oh, and by "memorable", I mean "memorably great", not "Freefall" memorable (AKA "Romano v. Helicopter II: The Revengening", AKA when the show jumped the shark). Because now that it's over, let's not remember all the reasons it faded into obscurity, and rather celebrate one of the truly great network dramas in the history of television.

For weeks leading up to the premiere, NBC had been touting their new medical drama as the next great TV show, and when the two-hour pilot finished airing, they had me convinced. It's hard to relate 15 years later what a breath of fresh air the pilot was, since even in 1994, the concept of another medical drama was hardly groundbreaking (in fact, it wasn't even the only medical drama to debut that year, as Chicago Hope also came out that year). Moreover, the things that ER brought to the table have since become part of the fabric of television, so it's easy to take them for granted when looking back.

But at the time, the show's accelerated pace while attempting a certain level of medical realism was like nothing I'd seen before (interestingly, a show that was whip-fast in its day now seems a little slower paced in comparison to current shows). But while attention to detail was a signature of the pilot written by Michael Crichton, it wasn't about the flashy medicine that dominates current medical dramas, or even later period seasons of ER itself. This wasn't some pseudo-detective series about exotic diseases solved by cantankerous geniuses or unusual conditions that mirror the problems of the oversexed interns assigned to the case. This was an episode, and a series, about overworked, idealistic doctors that made viewers care about their struggles through the various personalities involved, not through flashy medicine.

With this episode, we're introduced to the weary Nurse Carol Hathaway (Margulies), wide-eyed intern John Carter (Wyle), roguish pediatrician Doug Ross (Clooney), brash young surgeon Peter Benton (La Salle), embattled Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield), and saintly chief resident Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards). Each is given a moment to shine and ingratiate themselves to the audience, be it Benton's celebratory fist pump after beginning an emergency surgery without supervision, or Ross' "How dare you! He's a little kid!" to an abusive mother. And just when we've decided that we'd like to spend an hour each week with these characters, in comes one of the series signature shocks as Hathaway is brought into the ER after an attempted suicide.

2. "Love's Labor Lost" – Season 1, Episode 19, Airdate: March 9, 1995

Probably one of the top two most memorable episodes (see number four on this list for the other), "Love's Labor Lost" marks the moment when the show upped the stakes. For 18 episodes Dr. Mark Greene was the assured, steady hand of the staff, who could seemingly do no wrong professionally (even as his personal life fell apart). Then a pregnant couple comes into the ER with a mom having a seizure (husband played by West Wing star Bradley Whitford), and a busy OB unit forces Greene to deal with mom and baby in the ER. It all seemed like a typical ER episode, perhaps even a heart-warming one as Jodi and Sean O'Brien were a delightful couple that looked to be giving the staff one of those moments that make the hard times worth it. Then things start to go terribly wrong. Watching it the first time, it never occurred to me that it would end in tragedy, even as things started to go south. There might be some drama, maybe even a close all, but Mark would eventually pull this one out, right? Not only did he usually come through, but a network show wasn't going to kill a pregnant lady, right? Then it did, and we learned to never take outcomes for granted on this show.

3. "Everything Old Is New Again" – Season 1, Episode 25, Airdate: May 18, 1995

I said in the first episode write-up that the appeal of ER wasn't the medical drama so much as it was the characters and personalities that made the show. They were well-rounded, flawed characters to be sure, but all in all, they were people I enjoyed spending time with. In fact, more than anything else, what made me finally stop watching the show was that as the years went on, the series kept trying to equal the big dramatic heights of the classic period of the show, but didn't have the natural chemistry and camaraderie of the original cast to make all the dramatic highs and lows more palatable. It's that chemistry and camaraderie that makes the first season finale a memorable and cherished one for me. I can't even remember any of the medical stuff from the episode, other than the fact that it was Carter's last day as a first-year intern. Instead, this is the episode of Hathaway's almost-marriage to Tag (Rick Rossovich), which to no one's surprise, never made it all the way down the aisle. Tag was always set up as a foil to Doug Ross, so I don't think many viewers actually believed he and Carol would go through with the wedding. But they handled it deftly by having Taglieri be the one to pull out at the last minute, preserving some of the character's dignity in the process, while giving Carol and Doug a nice moment together that showed that while they had more than their share of problems in the past, there was obviously some good times as well. Then the series sends us off for the summer with a joyous celebration of the characters we had grown to love, as Carol's invited guests join her in some silly dancing to reveal that everything would be alright with these characters, at least for a little while. When I think about how much I enjoyed the original cast of this show, this is how I choose to remember them.

This is the other most memorable episode of ER and the one that made George Clooney a full caps STAR. He was obviously already on his way, which is why the ensemble show turned over most of an episode to Doug Ross' adventure outside of County General, but once the episode was finished, there was no doubt who the marquee player of the cast was. With his career in jeopardy and his personal life constantly sabatoged by his own worst impulses, Doug is out on a rainy night looking for the bottom of the barrel. But just as he's about to fire up a joint, a young boy knocks on his window, frantically enlisting Doug's help with his brother who is stuck in a flooding culvert. George Clooney action hero is born as he saves the kid from drowning, as TV helicopters record the daring rescue. It's a great action episode, that's balanced dramatically with Benton and Carter's inability to save the life of another child in the ER.

5. "Ambush" – Season 4, Episode 70, Airdate: September 25, 1997

The famed live episode. It's a mistake to write this one off as a gimmick, both because it's a lot more than that and because gimmicks aren't necessarily bad things. The series had already done 69 episodes by the time the fourth season began (which is just 16 episodes shy of the entire run of The Sopranos), so something like this can help keep the series fresh for both the audience and the cast.

Looking back at it, the episode is impressive both from a technical standpoint, with all the ideas they put in to overcome any potential live errors (having it be a documentary-like episode, throwing in extras that could cover flubs, etc), but also how much business they cover from an ongoing storyline standpoint. I'd understand making a gimmick episode be simply about itself, then introduce more significant threads in the next episode, but they didn't. Not only did they continue the emotional journey of Mark Greene post-beating, but it also introduced the character of Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston), brusquely informed Dr. Carter that he'd be repeating his internship, and set up the departure of Chief of Staff David Morgenstern (William H. Macy), all threads that would power the early part of this season.

6. "Exodus" – Season 4, Episode 84, Airdate: February 26, 1998

While it was the quiet character moments that made the show great, ER was still capable of excellent action episodes, with huge emergency episodes that take over the ER. This one began with the action taking place outside of County General, with Corday attending to a man trapped in a collapsing building on a paramedic ride-along. The action picked up when a benzene spill crippled the ER, causing Dr. Weaver (Laura Innes) to collapse, and leading to mass chaos as everyone tries to figure out what to do. Carter, repeating his intern year after switching his speciality to emergency medicine, steps into the leadership vacuum, calmly directing traffic while dealing with hazard control. Amongst the frantic action, Corday tries to save her patient, and Carol and Doug are trapped in an elevator with a little girl in critical condition. "Exodus" ranks amongst the best of all the adrenaline-filled disaster episodes, standing out as a key moment in the development of John Carter.

To change things up, the show would usually do at least one episode a season away from the hospital, putting a spotlight on a character or pair of characters. Earlier examples include season three's Hathaway spotlight "The Long Way Around" and season four's "Fathers and Sons", which followed Ross and Greene's daddy issues-fuelled road trip in California. I chose to go with season five's Benton spotlight "Middle of Nowhere" both because I wanted to spread out the episodes on this list throughout several seasons, and because it stood out for its portrayal of Peter Benton.

Benton travels to Mississippi to fill in for a local doctor to earn some extra money to help out with his son's therapy, and finds things in the rural south much different than what he's accustomed to. What I love about this episode is how it shows the depth of Peter Benton that he usually keeps hidden behind his veneer of arrogance and stoicism. Being removed from the pressures of County General does wonders for him in this episode, as he overcomes his initial disdain for the slower pace and culture shock he encounters, presenting a happier, more relaxed Benton, even while dealing with the overt racism of his environment. Dude actually laughs and smiles in this one. I always liked Benton, with episodes like this being the reason why.

The list moves from one of the warmest episodes to probably the most horrifying in series history. You could argue that the following episode, "All in the Family", is the superior episode, dealing with the fallout from the end of this one, but it doesn't get much more memorable than the moment when Carter is silently stabbed from behind by a psych case (played by David Krumholtz). When I think about Carter falling to the floor in pain, only to reveal that his med student Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin) had already been stabbed, it still gives me a sick feeling. Everything prior to that moment was standard ER stuff, with plans for the Valentine's party afoot, Carter ignoring Lucy's difficulties with what seemed to be a routine patient, and Rocket Romano (Paul McCrane) performing surgery on his dog. Little did we know that they were setting us up for a moment that is still difficult for me to think about nine years later.

9. "Secrets and Lies" – Season 8, Episode 173, Airdate: March 7, 2002

After Carter, Lewis, Kovač (Goran Visnjic), Abby (Maura Tierney), and Gallant (Sharif Atkins) are busted going through a sex worker's bag of tricks, they're all forced to attend a sexual harassment course on the weekend. When their instructor is held up, the five are essentially forced to spend a Saturday in all day detention, with the four doctors and one nurse (Abby) becoming County General's Breakfast Club. I loved how easily the Breakfast Club motif worked with these characters and this show, allowing us to see different aspects of each's personality and the different tensions at play in the various relationships in the room.

This was a transition period for the show, as Anthony Edwards was preparing to leave. I've always seen this episode as a way for the show to officially transfer the focus from the older members of the cast personified by Edwards to its younger cast personified by these five actors (with Noah Wyle serving as a fulcrum, as he was an original cast member, but generationally fit in with this group of performers). I also appreciate this episode because the sense of fun it managed amongst all the angsty relationship stuff (with Carter and Lewis' burgeoning relationship falling apart just as it was beginning), mostly because it came just as the show started its long, slow, painful death march that was Edwards' final episodes of ER.

10. "Kisangani" – Season 9, Episode 201, Airdate: May 15, 2003

I decided I had to have at least one post-Dr. Greene episode on this list, as I did continue to enjoy the show for at least a couple more seasons after his departure. Of those, the most memorable were the first couple Doctors Without Borders episodes in Africa. They were highly cinematic, with some of the strengths of earlier outside the ER spotlight episodes. I went with the first Africa episode "Kisangani", the ninth season finale, over season ten's "The Lost", because I felt it the stronger of the two (although "The Lost" was memorable on its own, with viewers unsure whether or not Carter was returning to Africa to collect Kovač's corpse). What I liked about "Kisangani" is that it finally put to end the rivalry between Carter and Kovač, which had been fun for awhile (notably in the episode above), but had mostly become tiresome at this point.

]]>http://blogcritics.org/ten-memorable-episodes-of-er/feed/2Movie Review: Watchmenhttp://blogcritics.org/movie-review-watchmen7/
http://blogcritics.org/movie-review-watchmen7/#commentsThu, 12 Mar 2009 09:06:17 +0000The first thing I want to know about a review of the new Watchmen movie is whether or not the reviewer has read the original graphic novel on which it is based. I need to know if the reviewer is basing their opinion solely on how it works as a film, or if the reviewer is comparing the film to the comic (consciously or subconsciously). In that spirit, I'll fill you in on my level of experience when it comes to Watchmen: I've read the original series created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons a few times, including a re-reading a couple of days before seeing the film. When it comes to the comic, I have no original opinions to share: basically, I agree with most everyone that it represents the very best the medium has to offer, and reading it for the first time well over a decade ago changed both what I came to expect from comics and how I read them.

That said, I'm no über-fanboy who thinks the original text is sacrosanct and is insulted on behalf of Alan Moore by the very thought of a Hollywood adaptation of his work (Moore long ago decided he wants no part of adaptations of his work, deciding the medium incompatible with comics after being burned with a couple of bad adaptations of previous work). I enjoyed the 2005 film adaptation of V for Vendetta, and felt that if properly respected, there's no reason why a good Watchmen film couldn't be made. Sure, things would be lost in translation, as the comic was as much about the medium of superhero comics as it was about these particular superheros, but that's true any time you adapt a story from one medium to another. I was prepared to allow for changes as long as the main ideas and themes of the story remained intact. Honestly, despite how much is written about how unforgiving fanboys are over the minutiae of their worlds, I think the whole thing is either exaggerated, or representative of only a small minority of comic-book fans. As long as filmmakers treat the characters and stories with respect, most comic-book fans have no problem with changes like Spider-Man having organic webshooters or Storm being an original member of the X-Men.

Still, despite having some anticipation for this film, I can't say that I've been looking forward to it for years. I was fine with the comic just being a comic, and haven't exactly been waiting for Hollywood to come along and validate its existence. I'm a huge film fan, but I don't think it's the superior medium. I don't need my personal favourites to become fodder for the general public, so if a Watchmen movie was never made, I wouldn't think it a great loss.

Going in, I'd say my outlook toward the film was cautiously optimistic. I purposely kept my expectation levels in check (as much as possible), but made sure to enjoy the preceding hype for what it was. Whether or not the film ended up being any good, it was fun to see so many online discussions about the book and characters pop up, or experience the funlittlepieces of viral marketing that boded well for the film's attempts to recreate the iconic imagery from the book, or even just to take in a few Watchmen-related spoofs. Sure, Zack Snyder wasn't my first choice of director for a potential Watchmen film (or second choice, or a choice I would've made at all), but I had to give him credit for fighting the battles to get it made, set it in the '80s, and other little touches that showed that he respected the work (after all, I may not have liked 300, but I did feel that it was a pretty exacting adaptation… of a pretty dumb comic).

So how did Snyder do? To start with the good news, his at-times slavish devotion to the source material led to scenes that leapt off the page and on to the screen, be it Dr. Manhattan's origin or Rorschach attempting to avoid capture. It was thrilling to see these iconic images spring to life in two-dimensions on a 50-foot IMAX screen, and enough to warm the cockles of even the most cynical fanboy's heart. Snyder is an adept visualist, an ability put to good use in the film's bravura title sequence, where he takes iconic moments in America's history, and inserts the characters of this world, adeptly establishing the world and history of Watchmen in a creative way that is not borrowed from the book.

In terms of the cast, there are some good performances on display, with Jackie Earle Haley standing out in particular as the grim Rorschach. He's the highlight of the film, and can be placed in the pantheon of perfectly cast roles in comic-book movies, and is probably the best reason to go see the film. Patrick Wilson is solid as the film's emotional centre, bringing a humanity to the film that is largely missing from its two stand-out characters in Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan. Billy Crudup brings the calm, distant attitude of Dr. Manhattan to life, while Jeffrey Dean Morgan brings charisma to the morally reprehensible Comedian.

On the flip side, Malin Akerman and Matthew Goode are pretty bad as Silk Spectre II and Ozymandias respectively. Neither can overcome the Alan Moore purple prose that populates David Hayter and Alex Tse's screenplay, giving flat line readings that fail to imbue either character with any depth. Unless she's in her tight latex costume (or immediately out of it), Akerman barely registers at all, which is a major disservice to one of the key emotional journeys of the book. Worse is Goode's one-note performance that telegraphs the film's ending when greater ambiguity was called for. And as much as it pains me to say it, Carla Gugino is hit and miss as the original Silk Spectre, although a lot of the misses can be blamed either on Akerman, whom she shares many scenes with, or the make-up department, whose attempted aging of Gugino was really poorly done, particularly when viewed on a 50-foot screen.

Which brings us to the bad news. It'd be unfair to pin all the flaws of the film on Akerman and Goode, as their struggles would've easily been overshadowed in a better film. As much credit as Snyder gets for having the stones to finally get a Watchmen movie made, it still doesn't mean he was the right choice for the job. He's an adrenalin junkie action director, which works great when he sticks to speeding up zombies or greasing up Spartans to fight in front of green screens, but not as well when telling one of the most dense and complicated stories in the history of comicdom. When not assaulting the audience with an overbearing score and soundtrack, Snyder ups the levels of violence that were already fairly significant in the book, and needlessly extends fight scenes in a film that was already stretched to its limits with a 2 hour and 43 minute running time. While making sure that he got the right shots and moments from the series, Snyder neglected to get the right tone. Too often the heroes of the film seem bad ass, when they should seem disturbed and pathetic.

In many ways, Snyder is guilty of the same crimes the majority of the comic book community committed following the release of the 12 issue Watchmen mini-series from 1986-87 (along with the 1986 release of Frank Miller's seminal The Dark Knight Returns). Instead of trying to tell stories of greater sophistication and depth, the comics world decided that the lessons of Watchmen and DKR were to create darker characters and inject more "mature" themes into the world of superheroes.

But the biggest problem with Watchmen the movie is the same problem that infects most film adaptations of longer books: in order to get all the story into an acceptable running time (even one this long), the stories tend to be reduced to merely plot. In this way, Snyder is no different than prestige picture directors adapting literary classics. The film feels like a collection of scenes and plot developments, mashed into one another without the necessary time to develop its characters or invest us in the developments. To squeeze in the dense plotting of the book, the flavour is left out. Scenes that needed a few more minutes to breathe aren't given the time to do so, and threads that connect one development to another are sometimes left out. This is what kept me from truly embracing the film, in that I never felt comfortable enough with it to embrace it. The other flaws, be it subpar acting from some of the leads, the oppressively loud score, or Snyder's by now signature slo-mo action scenes would've been mere annoyances if the tone of the film was properly established.

The plan is to release a director's cut with another hour of footage, mixing in footage that will appear in the forthcoming Tales of the Black Freighter DVD release, presumably along with some of the connecting scenes that are absent in the theatrical release, so perhaps this issue will be addressed then. For now, all I can judge is the theatrical cut, which at times felt like there were "insert scene here" moments that took me out of the film. It's not that Watchmen is a bad film, there was some truly thrilling moments and enough of the original work to be worthwhile. But when you're adapting perhaps the greatest achievement in the history of a medium, merely "worthwhile" equates to "disappointing". There's enough right with this film that I look forward to watching the extended version on Blu-ray when it comes out, but not enough that I have any desire to see the theatrical cut again.

]]>http://blogcritics.org/movie-review-watchmen7/feed/1The Top 10 Movies of 2008http://blogcritics.org/the-top-10-movies-of-2008/
http://blogcritics.org/the-top-10-movies-of-2008/#commentsSun, 15 Feb 2009 18:06:07 +0000As I did with my albums of the year list, I have to begin this list lamenting the fact that the 2008 year in film was not as good as the 2007 year in film. It was a down year for art in general, as pretty much any critic you read will tell you. Part of the reason for the negativity is the fact that the usual year-end glut of awards-baiting prestige films were largely disappointing, often ranging from merely solid to outright bad. And since that's the steady diet critics (and myself) are fed around the time they write year-end lists (albeit theirs come out at the actual end of the year, whereas mine waits until February, but I have to pay to see my movies), so it's not surprising that the same enthusiasm wasn't there, especially when the year before featured instant classics like No Country for Old Men, Zodiac, and There Will Be Blood.

Instead, the greatness in 2008 came not from the types of movies Hollywood likes to get dressed up for to dole out awards, but from the films fans line up for to buy overpriced concessions to see on opening day, or movies released early in the year when people weren't paying attention. So this list is still filled with movies I enjoyed quite a bit, and recommend to everyone. As of this writing, I've seen 63 films released in North America in 2008, which includes some foreign language films that were released in their native countries in previous years, but doesn't include some TIFF films I saw that haven't yet been released (some of which would definitely contend for this list and will probably pop up next year… unless it is phenomenal). Of those 63, these were the best…

Honourable Mentions:Man on Wire; Bolt;Synecdoche, New York; I've Loved You So Long;Milk

10. In Bruges – When I first saw trailers for this film, I liked everything about it except the prominence of Colin Farrell. That and the fact that it was released early in the year when I was focused on last year's Oscar contenders, then burned out from going to the movies so often, is probably the reason why I just got around to watching this a week ago. If either of these things have kept you from seeing this funny, twisty, clever, action flick with surprisingly effective dramatic overtones, it's time to give it a shot. Especially the Farrell thing, because he's fantastic in this. I have a feeling that I'll be watching this one several more times, as its originality, sense of fun, and pathos make it the kind of film that could become a personal favourite.

9. Let the Right One In – As original as In Bruges is, it's downright conventional when compared to the next entry on the list, a dramatic horror out of Sweden that shows that you can do a sweet story of young love and vampires and not have it be completely lame. Thirteen-year-old Oskar's lonely life usually consists of avoiding school bullies and hanging out on the world's saddest playground, until he meets his new neighbour, an unusual girl named Eli. They quickly become friends, then run through the clumsy motions of young courtship until Oskar starts noticing that people are dying due to strange neck bites, and his pale new girlfriend is never around in the day. It's just about the sweetest, weirdest, most disturbing little movie you could think of, and perhaps the most daring movie of the year. It's about time somebody restore some dignity to cinematic vampires.

8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall – Along with the blah output amongst many of the Oscar hopefuls, another reason that 2008 was disappointing was the comedic output of the year. Despite my affection for this amiable film (I've now seen it twice, and enjoyed it as much the second time around as the first), it's still a flawed movie, so the fact that it's not only the best funny movie released this year, but that no other movie even comes close, is a bit disappointing.

7. The Visitor – The first great film of the year, The Visitor was released all the way back in April, which isn't exactly the time for thoughtful character studies (to give you an idea, I probably saw the next movie on this list the week after I saw The Visitor, in a theatre where me and my companions were over half of the audience). Somehow, the Academy managed to remember it long enough (or more likely, discovered it later in the year from the comfort of their own homes) to nominate consummate professional Richard Jenkins for a best-acting award (that he has no chance of winning). That was probably the most pleasant surprise from this year's nominations, which otherwise gave me plenty to complain about.

6. Iron Man – For a glorious 2.5 months, Iron Man was on top of the world: it kicked off the blockbuster season with authority, causing quality-starved comic book fans to go wild and start asking if it was the best comic book movie ever. Which was a little overzealous, but it is a fantastic piece of entertainment, so it was easy to understand the enthusiasm, especially in comparison to the past few years of superhero movies. Then another one came out in mid-July, and people were all "Iron Man who"?

5. The Wrestler – Mickey Rourke gives the lead performance of the year in a movie that feels so accurate to its subject matter, that I almost felt like watching professional wrestling again. Then I remembered that pro wrestling isn't as thoughtful as Darren Aronofsky's film and I thought better of it. Plus, the wrestling stuff is just window dressing for a quiet drama about a broken man trying to redeem himself for all the crappy things he did while trying to get to the top, even if that man might not have it in him to properly make amends. I saw this again recently to make sure I didn't overrate it from my early morning TIFF screening with a probably-still-drunk Aronofsky introducing it, and I'm pleased to say that it does. Go see it if you like gritty character studies, and don't worry if you don't like wrestling.

4. Rachel Getting Married – I hadn't really thought about it until now, but there's parallels between this film and the one ahead of it. Both are low-fi character studies with heavily flawed protagonists seeking small measures of redemption, but keep fucking it up due to the flaws that made them so fucked up in the first place. The Wrestler was easily the more viscerally appealing of the two, but Rachel Getting Married was the better of the two. Jonathan Demme's film had the most depth of any film in 2008, accomplishing the rare feat of being a movie about family dysfunction that still imbued a deep, true sense of family, rather than a collection of damaged characters. It's as warm as it is tortured, making for the best/worst wedding you'd ever want to attend.

3. Slumdog Millionaire – I feel an extra pull to Slumdog Millionaire, having been one the first people to see it when Danny Boyle presented it at TIFF, just a week after it debuted at Telluride. It was the highlight of the festival for me, where I helped contribute to its People's Choice Award. There's been a bit of a backlash against the film, as is always the case with anything popular, largely by people who want it to be something it's not. Slumdog Millionaire is a modern-day fable, grounded in realism, but not married to it. It's not a perfect film, but rather one that eschews the crushing cynicism usually found in North American fare, and it's that sense of optimism in the face of despair that audiences have responded to. Boyle accomplishes this with the visual flair and sensualism that he's become renowned for, which allows him to indulge in optimism without devolving into schmaltz. The result is an energetic rush of a film that reinforced why I love going to movies.

2. WALL-E – At this point, my slavish devotion to (almost) all things Pixar has long passed bias and moved on to full-on cheerleader mode. And as long as they keep pushing boundaries and coming up with masterpieces like WALL-E, I'm okay with that. I love that they've decided that the fact that they're going to pull in big family audiences no matter what allows them not to lazily produce derivative schlock, but instead allows them to take chances that other blockbusters (live action or animated) from other studios won't. It's not common to see artistry thrive in such big budget situations, so I choose to enthusiastically celebrate when it does.

1. The Dark Knight – Was there really any doubt? I've been salivating over this movie since it came out, declaring it the Top Comic Book Movie of All-Time. Again, as with anything this immensely popular, there has been a bit of backlash against this film of late; although interestingly, the backlash seems to be directed more at the fans of this movie than the film itself. People are tiring of the fanboys devotion to this film, and can't fucking understand why every Oscar discussion is derailed with talk about TDK's exclusion. Well, boo hoo. How dare people question why one of the best blockbuster films ever was excluded in favour of third-rate (and somewhat insulting) Nazi films and warmed over biopics that will be all but forgotten once the ceremony is aired?!? I'm not saying The Dark Knight is the greatest movie ever, but in a year that was seriously lacking in greatness, it certainly ranked as something worthy of praise.(Note: I'm also not saying that The Dark Knight isn't the greatest movie ever. I'll leave it up for you decide how I feel).

]]>http://blogcritics.org/the-top-10-movies-of-2008/feed/10DVD Review: Skins – Volume Onehttp://blogcritics.org/dvd-review-skins-volume-one/
http://blogcritics.org/dvd-review-skins-volume-one/#respondSat, 31 Jan 2009 04:37:17 +0000Skins, the latest British import to make its way to North America, is being advertised as the teen drama for people who find Gossip Girl too genteel. The show was created for Channel 4 in the UK, then recently brought over to BBC America. The first nine-episode season (or “series” as they’re called in England) was released on region one DVD on January 13 amidst new outcries that television has reached new lows. And if you watch the first episode, “Tony”, full of teens drinking, doing drugs, and having sex, you’ll be ready to believe the hype.

The first episode of the series introduces us to Tony, an incredibly handsome, intelligent, popular 16-year-old with a mind squarely focused on debauchery, played by Nicholas Hoult. (Yes, the dorky kid from About a Boy has become incredibly handsome. Didn’t see that coming.) Tony has decided that his best friend Sid (Mike Bailey) needs to lose his virginity, so he decides to use his charms to get his girlfriend Michelle (April Pearson) to take care of that for him. So, yes, the introduction to the series is centred around a plot where an entitled little douchebag manipulates his girlfriend into getting one of her friends to shag his dorky friend. Not exactly promising stuff if you’re looking for real drama instead of titillating teenage thrills.

But while the series starts off like another in a series of teensploitation works that strike fear in the hearts of parents everywhere, like Kids, Thirteen, or Havoc, albeit one with more engaging characters and a better sense of fun, it quickly changes tracks to reveal greater depth than one would expect. The second episode, “Cassie”, focuses on Cassie, a spacey anorexic played by Hannah Murray, just released from therapy in the first episode (when she was recruited to deflower Sid). While her problems were played more for laughs in “Tony”, Cassie is revealed here to be a tragic character, who draws instant sympathy from the audience once we get a glimpse of her life. Hannah Murray proves to be a terrific young actress, instantly engaging while remaining quirky. After this spotlight episode, which features a brilliant (and horrifying) scene where Cassie describes her techniques used to deceive people into thinking that she eats, I was sold on the series, with Cassie joining Sid as my favourite characters of the series.

I initially wrote off the drastic shift in tone between the first and second episodes as the typical differences that occur between pilot episodes designed to sell a series and later episodes that offer a more realistic portrait about how a series will look (that is, if the Brits even do things that way). You could easily see a show putting together a sexy pilot episode like “Tony” to get attention before calming down (whether by design or by network decree, not that the second episode is suddenly devoid of taboo subject matter). But as the season wore on, with episodes that focused on tightly-wound Jal (Larissa Wilson) and the group goof Chris (Joseph Dempsie), before giving Sid his own spotlight episode (with Sid playing a significant role in each of the four episodes that precede his episode), I began to realize that the episodes don’t merely spotlight the character for whom it is titled, but is also filmed from their perspective as well.

The show doesn’t rely on obvious cues to reveal this, like character voiceovers or character POV shots, so I can be forgiven for taking a bit of time to clue in (please?). But as I got a feel for the series, I started to clue in to the fact that each episode had a distinct feel, taking on the personality of the feature character. Cassie’s episode was ethereal and surreal, full of hallucinations and allusions to food, while Jal’s is stressed out, and Chris’ is a drugged-fueled nightmare that doesn’t make sense at times, but ultimately gives a feeling of isolation and abandonment to match his literal nakedness. When viewed this way, it not only gave me a greater appreciation of the surprising complexity of the series, but also retroactively forced me to appreciate the “Tony” episode more than I originally had. It wasn’t simply a case of a show trying to generate buzz through controversy, but it was also the world according to Tony: where everything comes easily, and things that don’t immediately concern him are dismissed as unimportant. His raison d’être is to entertain himself and to see how much he can manipulate others in order to keep things interesting, and thus his episode reflects that.

It’s these nuanced touches that set the show apart, making it more than your typical teen melodrama, and more than it initially appeared to be. The sex, drugs, and boozing are there throughout the series, but my focus was set on the personalities of the kids, the genuine drama of their situations, and the pervasive humour throughout. I know I’ve been focused on the controversy of the show and the tragedy of characters like Cassie and Chris, but it must be said that the show is really, really funny. Despite the harrowing ordeals of his spotlight episode, Chris keeps a light, humourous tone throughout (not in small part due to the fact that the rest of the characters all see him as the happy-go-lucky clown, and the rest of the episodes are from their perspectives). Dev Patel’s (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) Anwar is a mostly goofy kid, whose Muslim beliefs come in conflict with his desire to party with his friends, leading to an odd contradiction where he prays five times a day, in between drinking and talking about boobs, or hanging out with his best friend Maxxie (Mitch Hewer), an openly gay teen.

Credit for the humour goes to creators Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain, a father and son duo. Elsley quickly decided that if he was going to work on a teen series, he needed some young writers to help find their voices. So in addition to his 22-year-old son Brittain, he filled the rest of the writing staff with people in their twenties, while inviting even younger people to help brainstorm and break down stories. The result is a television anomaly: a teen show starring actors who are teens, who act like teens, and SOUND like teens. These kids do and say stupid things because, well, teens do and say stupid things. Their brains aren’t developed enough to appreciate long term consequences, and they lack the maturity to always understand that which should be clear to them, and, god help them, they just say some stupid shit. And it’s hilarious.

Funny, smart, poignant, and addicting, Skins is basically everything you’d want from a teen drama, managing the interesting trick of seeming saucy, but ultimately being sweet in nature. Even though I’m very much not the target demographic, I have to say that I’m hooked, especially after the sudden impact of the season finale. So if you are the type of viewer who does appreciate teen dramas, even those of a more cerebral nature like Freaks and Geeks or My So-Called Life, you owe it to yourself to see how they do it across the pond.

DVD Review: The first thing that needs to be said about the region one DVD release of the series is that they didn’t get the musical releases for the songs that played in the original airing of the series. Since I’ve only seen it this way, I can’t judge how much of an effect it has on the series, but from what I’ve read, it’s a big negative, as music is supposed to be an integral part of the show. So be forewarned. From the back of the DVD: “We regret that due to music clearance issues, the final scene of episode 9 has been edited for DVD release”. That said, I’ve seen the original ending of the season on YouTube, and I have to say that I prefer the edited version on the DVD.

The episodes themselves are presented in 16:9 enhanced aspect ratio, with a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track, and optional English subtitles for those who have difficulty understanding British accents and slang (or, you know, those who have difficulty hearing in general). It was filmed in high definition, so it looks pretty good with a surprisingly impressive visual style.

As for special features, the set includes two groups of mini-features: nine video diaries featuring each of the main characters, plus one for Tony’s younger sister Effie (the subject of the eighth episode of the series, played by Kaya Scodelario) and one for recurring character Abigail Stock (Georgina Moffat). These are webcam-type videos with the characters directly addressing the camera, and were most likely used in a viral campaign for the show. The other set of mini-features are titled “Unseen Skins”, little minisodes that Channel 4 aired on their website to complement that evening’s episode. Basically, these play like deleted scenes, filling in some missing details from the episode, and like most deleted scenes, were wisely left out of the main narrative. Some of the video diaries were fun, but most of the “Unseen Skins” were stupid.

]]>http://blogcritics.org/dvd-review-skins-volume-one/feed/0The Top 20 Albums of 2008http://blogcritics.org/the-top-20-albums-of-2008/
http://blogcritics.org/the-top-20-albums-of-2008/#commentsSun, 25 Jan 2009 05:06:13 +0000After the banner year in music that was 2007, I suppose it was inevitable that 2008 would be a let down. And it was.

It's not that there wasn't any good music released this year; after all, I was able to come up with a full list of 20 (unlike with 2006, where I wimped out at ten). But there was a lack of greatness this year, with albums that rank very highly this year that would have ranked much lower the year previous. In fact, until I seriously started to think about how this list would shape up, many of the albums on it had failed to grab me throughout the year. In part, this has more to do with the fact that I spent the year listening to older music, but still, if I loved these albums like I loved the ones that topped last year's list, I would've taken notice much earlier.

The result is a list where I'm more comfortable with the bottom half (20-11) than I am with the top half. Not because the albums at the bottom are better (if they were, they'd be higher on the list), but because those albums feel like 20-11-type albums, whereas the albums that place highly on this album don't really feel like high placing albums, but this year they are.

20. Q-Tip – The Renaissance: It's become tradition for me to include at least one hip-hop album in my year end lists, in a futile attempt to show that I listen to more than just indie rock. Former token representatives Common and Kanye West each released albums this year, and, well, let's just say neither contended for this list and leave it at that.

Instead, Q-Tip makes his triumphant return to the world of hip-hop in the appropriately-named The Renaissance, his first album since 1999 (and first work of his I've paid attention to since A Tribe Called Quest's Beats, Rhymes and Life from 1996). If you've been missing that old Quest sound, rejoice that the Abstract has returned with an album that stacks up to some of the best that group had to offer, while staking out new territory for itself.

19. Cat Power – Jukebox: Normally, cover albums are the death of artistry, the final sign that a singer has nothing new to offer, and instead tosses out a bunch of standards, hoping people will still pay to hear them sing even after they've tired of listening to what they have to sing about. But in the case of Cat Power, real creativity is applied to the songs Chan Marshall decides to cover (it helps that they aren't all standards).

Marshall's distinctive voice goes a long way in making any song her own, but as she did with 2000's The Covers Record, she goes further in making the songs distinctive with slowed-down production that truly reinterprets tracks like "New York" (popularized by Frank Sinatra), "Ramblin' (Wo)man" (a cover of Hank Williams "Ramblin' Man"), and Joni Mitchell's "Blue".

18. Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust: The newest album from my favourite Icelandic experimental rock band was the first ever to feature a song in English ("All Alright")… and I gotta say, it doesn't matter. I don't even notice. I don't listen to Sigur Rós for lyrics, and given how majestic and inspirational their music it is, it's highly possible that the lyrics are corny for all I know.

Instead, Jón Þór Birgisson's vocals are just another instrument, which is fortunate given that he's often singing in gibberish anyway. The nice change for this album was that they went a little more playful, and a little less atmospheric, eliciting smiles with the first few tracks instead of the usual chills.

17. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend: I go back and forth with this album every other time I listen to it. With some listens, I'm instantly drawn to its catchy, quirky sounds, with its African-inspired beats and tempos feeling soothingly fresh and original. With other listens, the whole things sounds gimmicky and trite (what is "But this feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too" supposed to mean anyway?). And then some listens start off with me feeling one way, then feeling the other way as the album progresses (or alternating between songs).

In many ways, my reaction to the album mirrors both sides of the Vampire Weekend debate, at times echoing those who praised them early on as one of the best new things in music, at other times echoing the backlash that has many hating them.

16. The Walkmen – You & Me: When I first got into The Walkmen, with 2004's Bows + Arrows, I found their garage punk aesthetic a little sloppy at times, but I like the energy on certain tracks.

Their 2006 follow-up A Hundred Miles Off was similarly unbalanced. Which is probably why it took me a little while to get into You & Me: the energy I used to like from them isn't really there, replaced with a toned down, introspective sound that resulted in a less fun album, but ultimately far superior than previous efforts. Sometimes maturity can be an asset.

15. Lucinda Williams – Little Honey: After using the misery-fuelled West album to work through the grief of her mother's death and the pain of a breakup, Williams returned this year with an album with a little more pep. It's also one of the most balanced Lucinda Williams albums in years, showing off her versatility with cheeky songs like "Honey Bee" and the Elvis Costello duet "Jailhouse Tears", and higher energy tracks like rocking opener "Real Love". But even with the happy tone to the album, my favourite track is still the most depressing in "Little Rock Star". What can I say? I like my Lucinda with a heavy dose of misery.

14. Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer: If I have one criticism of The Dresden Dolls' frontwoman Amanda Palmer's solo effort is that it doesn't sound much like a solo album at all. I realize that the album was produced in large part by Ben Folds instead of Dolls' partner Brian Viglione, but Folds was tailoring his production to Palmer's patented cabaret punk style, and thus sounds like it could've easily been done by Vigilione.

Of course, as a fan of The Dresden Dolls, I have no problem listening to another album that sounds like theirs (particularly since no one else sounds like them). Plus, as Palmer herself says, the majority of tracks here are slower ballads that would've unnecessarily slowed down a Dolls album. So it has a reason to exist! More importantly, it's pretty awesome.

13. The Kills – Midnight Boom: I'm convinced that The Kills will never be a great band: they're too manufactured and their two-piece, drum-machine created sound is a little too slight.

But, if they can never be great, I'll take consistent goodness. With Midnight Boom they threw off some of the polished veneer that made their music a bit distant, with an album that's more fun. Since No Wow was plenty fun to begin with, I'm happy with more.

12. Kathleen Edwards – Asking for Flowers: Edwards' 2003 album Failer is one of my favourites of the decade, and with her two subsequent releases, she's proven dependable without reaching the same heights of her debut. It's probably for the best, since what made Failer so compelling is the overarching feeling of despair that emanated from the album, and who wants to live life carrying that around?

So while I may not love Asking for Flowers like I love Failer, it doesn't mean that it doesn't have value. It's probably better for Edwards as an artist to expand into more playful tracks like "The Cheapest Key" or "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory" while mixing in some of her trademark melancholy with "Alicia Ross" and "Sure as Shit". Plus, when you can produce a track as majestically sorrowful as "Buffalo", you're still cool with me.

11. Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us: Not that music need be depressing to be good, as my next few selections show. The interesting thing about Mates of State is that you can use the exact same terms to praise them as you can to criticize them. I heard one critic derisively dismiss their sound as "being pelted by candy", to which another critic responded "you say that like it's a bad thing". Because it IS like being pelted by candy, and THAT IS AWESOME.

Personally, I can relate to a band made up of a young married couple who write pleasing songs about their mature love and emerging family, but I realize that it isn't for everyone. That said, I like what it says about me that it is for me.

10. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular: There were a lot of electropop bands big in the indie world in 2008, like CSS or The Ting Tings, largely because Apple decreed it to be the sound of the iPod. With each album, I enjoyed them as I first started listening to them, but would quickly tire of them before the album was even over, relegating the fun tracks to mixtape status.

I expected it to be the same way with MGMT, but as I listened to Oracular Spectacular, I didn't tire of it. In fact, it gets more rewarding each time I listen to it. Maybe that's because the Brooklyn duo aren't quite electropop, fusing more organic pop sensibilities into their electronic sound. The result is an album of surprising depth for something that initially sounds like little more than a fun listen.

9. She & Him – Volume One: When I first heard that Zooey Deschanel was putting out an album, I was curious, but dubious. Too many celebrities treat music as something their fame will allow them to dabble in, rather than an art form that requires dedication and craft. There's also something a little unseemly about how their fame lets them jump the queue and get instant record deals or access to top producers like M. Ward (who makes up the "Him" of the band).

Sure, Deschanel has a little more indie cred than someone like Jamie Foxx or Paris Hilton and thus gets a little more slack, but a few years ago, the same could be said of Scarlet Johansson, and that didn't turn out so well. Then I heard the album, and couldn't help but find it winning. Still, I didn't take it seriously at first, dismissing it a bit as a cute collection of covers, but not a true artistic endeavour. But I couldn't stop listening to it (which helped me realize that while the songs are designed to sound like 60s girl pop songs, only two of them are covers, the rest being original creations written by Deschanel and produced by Ward).

Maybe the trick for these celebrity side projects are to not try and trade on your name (hmmm, no thatdoesn'tseemto matter). I guess the trick is to actually have talent.

8. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes: One way the music of 2008 improves upon the music of 2007 is in the area of debuts. Last year, not one of my top 20 (or 5 honourable mentions) were debut albums.

Fleet Foxes is one of five (not counting Amanda Palmer's solo debut), so it's exciting to have been introduced to so many exciting new voices. As often is the case with new acts, it took me a little while to open up to the Seattle quintet, finding initial listens of the album pleasant, but forgettable. Then I started to pay more attention (largely because of the transcendent "White Winter Hymnal") and quickly decided that the band was for real.

Mixing Beach Boys-esque harmonies with a campfire acoustic aesthetic results in an album that is richly rewarding when looking for an album of quiet power.

7. Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer: Of course, new albums by established favourite bands have their own hills to climb. In the case of Wolf Parade, it took me awhile to warm to their sophomore effort simply because I didn't love it like I love Apologies to the Queen Mary. So I initially met the record with some disappointment, but continued to listen to it enough to realize that while it's not up to the standard they set three years ago, it's still pretty strong on its own right.

It's hard to say why it doesn't quite measure up, the energy is still there, and the songs are all pretty great, but maybe it lacks the same sense of urgency? Or maybe it's as simple as the fact that you can only fall in love once.

Still, if you're like me, and were initially disappointed by At Mount Zoomer, I suggest you give it another shot to win you over on its own merits.

6. TV on the Radio – Dear Science: At this point, it seems federally mandated that Dear Science must appear on a 2008 year-end albums list, so who am I to argue? It helps that this is the first TVOTR album that I was able to get into right away. I eventually came to enjoy Return to Cookie Mountain, but it took me awhile.

Maybe Dear Science was easier to get into because I was more accustomed to their eclectic style, or maybe TV on the Radio were less interested in proving themselves the smartest guys in the room with this one. Or maybe it's just easy to get into an album with an opener as triumphant as "Halfway Home".

5. Aimee Mann – @#%&! Smilers: Since numbers 8 through 4 are mostly interchangeable, I decided to give the bottom two spots of my top five to two personal favourite acts who happened to perform in concerts I attended this year. It's my list, and I'll play favourites if I want to.

When you're as consistently strong in what you do as is Aimee Mann, it's easy to be ignored by people who are always looking for the next big thing. While it's true that she has yet to release another album as great as Bachelor No. 2, and that Mann tends to stick within a certain range of music, it doesn't mean that critics are right in quickly assessing her work as "more of the same" then moving on to praise some new act that's doing the same things as her, only half as well.

Besides, anyone who says that the playful cynicism of this record is the same as the spacey solipsism of Lost in Space just isn't paying attention. Even if it were true, Mann's brilliance is such that I'd take repetitive albums every few years over most other acts anytime.

4. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs: Not that I'm immune from chasing the next thing. Although they've been one of my favourite bands for awhile now, I wasn't overly excited when they released Narrow Stairs, and didn't spend too much time with it upon its release.

I can't say why, maybe it was just the time of year, but I mostly let it sit for awhile. In anticipation for their opening gig for Neil Young, I gave Narrow Stairs another shot, and it clicked. The first thing that stands out in the album is the longer, more ambitious jam track (and lead of single) "I Will Possess Your Heart". Maybe it's the reason I didn't get into the album at first, because despite the fact that I liked the song, I worried that the band was trying too hard to show off. Instead, I've come to realize that the best quality of Narrow Stairs is how effortlessly it all comes together.

It's more self-assured than any of their previous releases, comfortably taping into levels of despair and melancholy in songs like "Cath…" and "Grapevine Fires" where in the past they may have buried some of the sentiment under protective layers of irony.

3. Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords: Normally, I wouldn't put a comedy act so high on an album list, but, hey, that's what kind of year it was. Plus, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are a lot more talented than your average novelty comedy act, even if they're "formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo".

Along with genuinely funny tracks that lose little of their humour with repeated listens, the Conchords are fantastic musical mimics, resulting in the most eclectic release of the year. This is the only album on this list that I instantly loved, and not only because it reminded me of the episodes in which the songs appeared (in truth, I love the album far more than I do the series). The only problem with the album is that hearing the types of songs they parody is now more difficult, as its hard not to think of FOTC and laugh.

2. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago: Also federally mandated: when speaking of For Emma, Forever Ago, one must tell the story of its making. This is both because the story gives the album the authenticity fans crave so desperately and because the story informs the music within.

Recovering from the breakup of both a relationship and his former band, while suffering from mononucleosis of the liver, Justin Vernon retreated to his father's Wisconsin cabin for three months in the winter. Eventually, he began to play around with some recording equipment he had around, writing and recording what became this record, playing all the instruments and overdubbing many layers of vocals, in the hopes of maybe coming up with a demo to help get a contract. The result is a wintry, introspective, deeply personal album that grabs you by the gut, then punches you in the heart, and puts you in that cabin with Vernon. Of all the albums on the list, this is the one most likely to become a classic.

1. Okkervil River – The Stand Ins: The top two were neck and neck for the top spot, with The Stand Ins earning the Album of the Year honours simply because I enjoy it more.

A sequel to 2008's excellent The Stage Names, which ranked sixth on my 2007 best of list. Frontman Will Sheff continues to write erudite, loquacious songs about pop culture and the difficulties of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, but succeeds where other wordy indie boys often fail – in that the songs still maintain their zip without getting completely lost in their naval. Thus his cleverness is still an asset, rather than a detriment, as the band's music is about more than just outlet for his ability to turn a phrase.

Basically, what I'm saying is Okkervil River are the anti-Bright Eyes. I enjoyed the album immediately, and grew to love it quickly, from the instrumental introduction to the sombre denouement. If even a down year in a music is capable of producing such a compelling, ambitious, and complete vision, then maybe I should stop whining about it being a down year.

]]>http://blogcritics.org/the-top-20-albums-of-2008/feed/2The Top Ten TV Episodes of 2008http://blogcritics.org/the-top-ten-tv-episodes-of/
http://blogcritics.org/the-top-ten-tv-episodes-of/#commentsMon, 12 Jan 2009 15:33:46 +0000Consider this the companion piece to my Top Ten TV Shows of 2008 list. Unlike that list, this one is a more standard year end list, only covering episodes that aired January 1 to December 31. Because I'm judging thousands of episodes, there was a bunch of contenders for this list, many of which were bunched pretty closely near the end of the list, so I used the 8-10 spots for shows that missed my other list just to change things up.

NOTE: Since I'll be talking about specific episodes, the write-ups will be necessarily spoilerish. For people who want to skim but remain unspoiled, the pictures are fairly unspoilery. On that note, I'll reiterate that I haven't caught up to The Shield, so please don't spoil it for me by telling my how amazing the finale was and how dumb I am for leaving it off this list. (Well okay, you can tell me that it's awesome. Just please don't tell me why.)

Gabon wasn't one of the best seasons of Survivor, in fact, it was pretty much instantly forgettable (well, in my case, I mean that figuratively, as I seem to remember everything about this show — which I'm not proud of). But this was one of the better episodes of the past 17 seasons (yes, there have been 17 seasons of this show, which will shock those of you who stopped paying any attention 15 seasons ago), mostly because it offered something that scripted TV can't: the complete and utter comeuppance of a real life bully.

After spending most of the season as one of the most mean-spirited, ungracious, bigoted contestant in the show's history, Randy found himself on the outside looking in after a few game twists and miscalculations left him with only one ally (the even more detestable Corinne). His big plan for survival? Be an even bigger ass to everyone, trying to get everyone to vote for him so he could use Bob's hidden idol. The problem? Bob didn't have a freaking hidden idol, Sugar did. And had it for weeks, but Randy was so dismissive of her and her intelligence that it didn't occur to him that she could have it. Instead, Bob had a fake idol, which he gave to Randy on Sugar's behest, all so Randy would look like an idiot at Tribal Council. And he did, and it was GLORIOUS. He smugly played the fake idol, had it thrown in his face, had those whose previous losses he never failed to throw back in their faces get to laugh in his, while Randy remained bitter and awful until the end.

It's Always Sunny can be one of the funniest shows on TV when it's on, but it's generally hit or miss. This one was mostly hit throughout the two-part episode, with the manic energy of the cast resulting in some inspired bits like Charlie's easily pulled teeth, his wild card reaction to Mac's plan (complete with a chair thrown through the window), Mac's crazy car scheme, their funeral, Sweet Dee's harrowing bus ride, and "the shadow". The only problem I had with the episode (well, besides Frank, who I could completely do without) was that I was watching it on my iPod, and bursting out laughing uncontrollably was a bit embarrassing.

After a wildly uneven second season that largely got by due to affection the characters had earned in the first season, this third (and probably final season) has been largely improved, given the characters we fell in love with a proper send-off. The show started with the official send-offs with the fourth episode of the season, with the departure of the now graduated Smash Williams (they would repeat the trick later with Jason Street). It was classic FNL, in that if you didn't nearly choke on the lump in your throat that developed about halfway through and only grew until the beautiful finish, then you lack a proper functioning soul. (PS: Yes I know that picture doesn't do the true highlights of the episode justice, it's just the best I could do. This season doesn't have much of a web presence yet, as I imagine NBC doesn't want too many spoilers out there until it's had a chance to air it.)

7. "Meditations in an Emergency", Mad Men – Season 2, Episode 13, Airdate: October 26

The season finale of Mad Men saw Don Draper return from his California sojourn just in time to prevent Sterling Cooper from disintegrating, while the rest of the country is worried about a more real disintegration during the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Mad Men is a show more about small moments and atmosphere, but as both season finales have proved, they can do bigger moments exceedingly well when they need to. Well, bigger moments by their standards, that is. Because when you have a season as richly developed as this one was, you can make moments like Duck's attempted coup or Betty's pregnancy seem like true emergencies, and moments like Don getting the best of Duck or the final scene with Betty and Don accepting their fate with their new baby seem monumental. The two biggest moments of the episode for me were Betty finally stepping out on Don, in a move that seemed to symbolically push her away from the child-like emotional behaviour she'd exhibited in the first two seasons (with season two being more of an emotional adolescence) and into adulthood, and most spectacularly, the scene between Peggy and Pete, where Peggy quietly and assertively tells Pete the truth about her pregnancy, devastating poor Pete in the most subdued fashion possible. Pete can be a little creep, but it was hard not to sympathize with the poor bastard there.

The Office has always been good at closing out seasons, with "Hot Girl", "Casino Night", and "The Job" all being some of the best the series has had to offer. Season four's closer was no exception, giving us the big moments like Toby's farewell, Phillis catching Dwight and Angela, Jim's thwarted proposal to Pam (OMG!), and the downfall of Ryan. But the best part of the episode was the introduction of Amy Ryan's new HR rep Holly Flax, who instantly made Michael Scott a better man, and resulted in one of the season's funniest bits, when Dwight (fairly easily) convinced Holly that Kevin is "special". A good season finale will leave a viewer desperate for the next season to begin, and this one certainly accomplished that.

5. "Succession", 30 Rock – Season 2, Episode 13, Airdate: April 24

30 Rock was riotiously funny coming back from the writers' strike, with “Subway Hero”, “Succession”, “Sandwich Day”, and “Cooter” all contending for this list. I give the nod to "Succession" not only had for the great gags of Liz's corporate makeover (and her and Pete's reactions to executive salaries), Dr. Leo Spaceman's phoning for diabetes repair, and Frank introducing the concept of "the Uncanny Valley", but also for the brilliant Amadeus spoof that pushed the episode over the edge to become something truly sublime.

4. "The New Girl", Mad Men – Season 2, Episode 5, Airdate: August 24

When you have a season as uniformly excellent as season two of Mad Men was, it can be difficult to pick out the best episode. Sure, the finale stuck out, which is why it made the list, but in many ways, the resolutions found in the finale aren't as indicative of the pleasures of this show. A better representation comes from episodes earlier in the season, which show the strengths of the series in how it can slowly unfold its characters. Of these earlier episodes, "The New Girl" was probably the strongest, and not just because it added another beautiful woman to the cast in the form of Don Draper's new secretary. Instead, "The New Girl" stands out because of the spotlight it gave to the relationship between Don and Peggy, filling in some of the gaps that came when the series jumped ahead two years. Knowing how Don helped Peggy out following her surprise pregnancy offered a fascinating glimpse into the mind of Dick Whitman/Don Draper. I still get chills when I think about Don sitting at Peggy's hospital bed, leaning in to say, "This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened."

The unique format of In Treatment allowed the audience to get deeper into characters than most shows, which was one of the best elements of the series. But the best episode belonged to pinch hitter Glynn Turman, who showed up briefly in the previous episode before coming to Paul's office the next day, and delivered the best, and most devastating, performance on television in the year 2008. Beyond the power of a distant father mourning the recent loss of his son, and the weight he carried believing himself responsible, what made the performance so strong was how Turman was able to adapt the small mannerisms that Blair Underwood had put into his son throughout the season, so that there was no doubt that this was Alex's father, or where many of Alex's tendencies came from. That's a kind of dedication you don't often find in television performances, much less from an actor brought in for one, 22-minute episode. Turman won an Emmy for his performance, which he'll get to reprise in the second season of the series.

2. "The Constant", Lost – Season 4, Episode 5, Airdate: February 28

Even when things weren't going well, Lost always finished strong with finales that brought viewers back. This past season, they decided not to wait til the final episode to deliver their best episode of the season; perhaps the best of the series. The show had already proved that it had come back strong with flash forward episodes like "The Beginning of the End" and "The Economist" (another strong contender for this list), then blew everything away with "The Constant", going back to the flashback structure, kind of, telling the story of Desmond… a man unstuck in time. It was a wonderful mindfuck of an episode that wound up being the most emotionally affecting in the series history, that made all those annoying "you're gonna die Charlie" promos from season three worth it.

1. "Late Editions", The Wire – Season 5, Episode 9, Airdate: March 3

The Wire tended to deliver their strongest episodes with the penultimate episodes of the season, letting the season finale serve as the elegy that comes after the explosions of the previous episodes. These episodes tended to be written by detective novelist George Pelecanos, and "Late Editions" was no different. To close out the series, Lester Freamon was finally able to get Marlo in bracelets (leading to Jamie Hector's strongest moment in the series as Marlo finds out what his crew was keeping from him), Bubbles celebrates his sobriety anniversary, and a happy endings were given to Namond and Bunny Colvin. On the not-so-happy front (or "completely, absolutely devastating front") the show ended with Michael killing Snoop to save himself, then the sublimely profound goodbyes to Bug and Dookie. For all the gritty crime realities, Greek tragedy, and intricate plotting, the real reason why The Wire is the greatest series in television history was how deeply it made you care about its troubled, complicated characters, to the point where it's still difficult for me to think about a murdering drug dealer say goodbye to his friend without getting choked up.

]]>http://blogcritics.org/the-top-ten-tv-episodes-of/feed/2The Top Ten TV Shows of 2008http://blogcritics.org/the-top-ten-tv-shows-of/
http://blogcritics.org/the-top-ten-tv-shows-of/#commentsSun, 04 Jan 2009 15:06:12 +0000It's year end list season again, so it's about time I got into the game. Actually, most publications and websites have already finished their year end lists, but those are written by people who get early screenings of things and, you know, don't earn their money doing things other than writing blogs. So expect the movie list sometime at the end of January, and my album list between now and then.

I'll start with TV because it's the list that doesn't require any more time to take in the contents (because if I haven't seen a season of a show yet, it's too late to catch up). The rules for my year end TV list are a little different than most other year end lists, in that it doesn't just cover things that took place within the calendar year of 2008. Television doesn't operate on a January to December calendar (or at least network TV doesn't), and I think it's silly to try and judge a TV show from the back portion of one season and the front portion of another.

Instead, this list judges seasons that ended in 2008, including portions that began in 2007. If a season began in 2008, but is slated to return in 2009, then it is not under consideration for this list. Make sense? Acclaimed shows that I don't watch, and thus won't be appearing on this list include The Shield (I'm on season three), Battlestar Galactica, Chuck, Doctor Who, Pushing Daisies, and House. On to the list…

10. Sons of Anarchy (Season 1): Creator Kurt Sutter moved on as a writer from The Shield to this to create FX's next great action-drama. When Sons of Anarchy began, it looked like a new spin on The Sopranos, with bikers replacing Gambinos. It was entertaining, if not terribly original. But as the season wore on, the show took the Shakespearean tradition of dramatic storytelling that's inherent in many American televised dramas and took it a step further, presenting Hamlet by way of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Originals, with a healthy dose of Macbeth thrown in through the brilliant performance of Katey Segal.

9. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Season 13): The biggest thing on TV all year was probably the historic election in the U.S., leading to some of the best TV coming from the political comedies like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and, surprisingly, Saturday Night Live. I chose TDS as my representative on this list as it felt just a little more vital and in tune to the issues than their cohorts over at The Colbert Report (who have to tailor the news a bit to fit the Colbert character). This year, the new class of correspondents (John Oliver, Aasif Mandvi, Wyatt Cenac, and Rob Riggle) polished their rough edges and made the show their own (joining veterans Samantha Bee and Jason Jones).

8. In Treatment (Season 1): It started off as a TV experiment, airing a half-hour drama every night of the week, with each night assigned to certain characters (adapted from an Israeli show). But beyond that, it was an experiment in what can happen when you strip away all the excesses of standard dramas, and simply put two actors in a room and let them play off one another. The surprising thing was how something so simple could be so gripping. Without any of the traditional rising action of other TV dramas, we're left with the smallest gestures, be it a wavering voice, a fidgeting hand, or that which is left unsaid, resulting in some of the most in depth character studies ever seen on television.

7. Breaking Bad (Season 1): When Bryan Cranston wound up winning the Best Actor Drama Emmy for his work in this series, I was shocked along with everyone else (with "everyone else" including the very small percentage of the world who give a shit, which I don't necessarily, but I was watching). Then I got a chance to catch the first season of Breaking Bad through an AMC marathon, and I was no longer shocked that he earned the honour, simply shocked that enough people saw it to vote for him. It's a phenomenal performance of a man slowly falling apart, in one of the more refreshingly original shows on TV.

6. Generation Kill (Mini-series): David Simon and Ed Burns wrap up the greatest show in the history of television to start the year, then give us one of the best mini-series in the history of the medium. That's a pretty good year (although, there really haven't been that many relevant mini-series in the past decade or so). For Generation Kill, Simon and Burns left the streets of Baltimore for the sands of Iraq, adapting Evan Wright's book of the same name to provide a stark account of the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I'd say this seven-part series is a bit of a mix between The Wire and Band of Brothers, and since I consider those to be two of the best things ever to appear on TV, that equals pretty high praise for Generation Kill. It didn't reach the epic level of Band of Brothers, largely because the stories behind United States Marine Corps' 1st Reconnaissance Battalion didn't reflect the epic battles of the 101st Airborne Division in WWII. Instead, Kill was interested in the mix of immediate danger with large periods of inaction, and the ambiguity of the situations the Marines faced. The result was a weird mix of high tension and tedium, with a compelling look at the men on the front lines.

5. Lost (Season 4): Lost went from being one of my absolute favourite shows on television to completely disappearing from these lists. But it picked up momentum midway through season three, carrying it forward to its fourth season, which may have been even better than its legendary first season. It is now easily the best drama on network TV, proving that the format need not be a dead zone for quality long-form storytelling (although at this point, it is the exception, not the rule). Switching from unimportant flashbacks to the new flashforward format injected life into the series, but the biggest improvement came from A) reducing the number of episodes thus trimming the fat that accompanies most network shows, and most importantly, B) setting an end date for the series to build toward. What looked to be a show aimlessly stretching for two seasons now has real momentum every week, making it again what it started off as: the most exciting show on television.

4. The Office (Season 4): It's funny, I still stick to my caveat of only judging seasons that ended in the calendar year, but this year, that rule only applied to the following two sitcoms on the list (well, and HIMYM in the honourable mentions section). Because only network TV separates seasons into two years, and even then, they're moving away from that trend with some of the bigger, continuity-heavy dramas like Lost and 24. It's also funny that NBC used to be home to the majority of my favourite shows, and now they only have one hour of watchable programming, the two best sitcoms on television. The writers' strike was tough on all shows this year, but particularly network shows that were interrupted by it. Of the two sitcoms sitting near the top of the list, I felt The Office was more negatively affected because it's the one with a stronger ongoing narrative. When that momentum was slowed by the strike, it took the show a bit of time to get its momentum back, and was hurt a bit more by the missing episodes. But, it was still fantastic, churning out classic episodes like "The Dinner Party", "The Deposition," and "Goodbye Toby".

3. 30 Rock (Season 2): So I gave 30 Rock the slight edge, mostly because I felt that its zanier tone was less affected by the interruption, as there's very little that ever changes with these characters. In fact, the worst episode of the season, "SeinfeldVision," was its first, and thus had nothing to do with the strike. "MILF Island", their first after the layoff, was a bit off, but then the show was on fire, with "Subway Hero", "Succession", "Sandwich Day", and "Cooter" all contending as best episodes of the year. Plus, any show that can come up with this deserves to be on top of the comedy division. This show makes me feel like my heart is trying to hug my brain!

2. Mad Men (Season 2): After an excellent first season, Mad Men improved in its second season to assume the mantle of Best Show On Television. And like most Best Shows, it's not a show for everyone, demanding patience and attentiveness from the viewers, progressing more on character and atmosphere than it does by plot. But those ready to commit that kind of attention to a show are rewarded with one of the richest, most dense shows I've ever seen; an hour of television that you can spend the next six days mentally unpacking. What's great about the second season is that it had less work to do in terms of unlocking the mysteries of Don Draper, and thus had more time to turn over to supporting characters. The result was a season that was as much about the women that fill the cast than the eponymous men of Sterling Cooper. For a show that features the rampant misogyny and casual sexism of the time period, it has three of the strongest female characters on TV.

1. The Wire (Season 5): 2008 saw the final season of the great American novel brought to you by David Simon and Ed Burns. Season five was the first season of The Wire that I got to watch as it aired, and the experience did not disappoint. This was the season that some critics started to turn on the show they had championed for years, largely because they didn't like it that Simon turned his critique to their area (the media), rather than his previous targets of City Hall, the War on Drugs, or the failing public school system. Since I don't work in the media, I had no problem with him attacking the ink-stained wretches of The Baltimore Sun, especially since the season was followed by a couple more fabulist scandals and a whole lot of layoffs in the newspapers around the country. Plus, the newspaper angle was only a small part of a season that featured a fantastically dark farce, the surprising fate of one of the best characters in TV history, and a painful elegy for characters we saw grow over the years. If you haven't gotten into this series yet, consider this my final plea.

Looking ahead to 2009: Both The Office and 30 Rock have been up to their usual high standards in their current seasons, so I look forward to seeing what they can do with full seasons at their disposal. Big Love, Flight of the Conchords, and Damages all return in January after being completely absent in 2008 due to the writers' strike. Those of you who haven't been following along on DirectTV (or, ahem, other means) are in for a treat when Friday Night Lights returns to NBC in January. It's been a comeback season for the beloved show, one that would've contended for this list if it didn't have two more episodes left to air. Lost begins its penultimate season near the end of January, Burn Notice continues its second season on January 22, and Breaking Bad returns in March. On DVD, I'll catch up on The Shield in time for the Andy TV Awards, so I don't stiff them again. As for new shows, I'll be checking out Showcase's The United States of Tara, HBO's Eastbound and Down, ABC's Cupid, and fully plan on falling in love with Joss Whedon's Dollhouse until FOX prematurely cancels it.

]]>http://blogcritics.org/the-top-ten-tv-shows-of/feed/3DVD Review: American Teenhttp://blogcritics.org/dvd-review-american-teen/
http://blogcritics.org/dvd-review-american-teen/#respondMon, 22 Dec 2008 05:42:03 +0000You generally don't want to judge a film by its advertising campaign, as the creation of the film and the marketing of it are generally two separate entities. But in the case of the documentary American Teen, new to DVD as of December 23, you can't help but feel that how director Nanette Burstein put the film together was influenced by how it was to be marketed, to the detriment of the film. It's not that I dislike the advertising; I enjoyed the trailer when I first saw it, and the whole Breakfast Club motif is one of the reasons why this movie caught my eye.

The problem is that too much of the film feels shoehorned to fit the marketing plan rather than to properly service the footage and stories that have been captured. The film is clearly trying to position itself to get a portion of the Juno or Napoleon Dynamite audiences (a review quote comparing it to both of those films appears on the DVD cover), while borrowing The Breakfast Club's conceit of representing all of teendom through five archetypes: the rebel (Hannah Bailey), the jock (Colin Clemens), the prom queen (Megan Krizmanich), the heartthrob (Mitch Reinholt), and the geek (Jake Tusing), five high school students attending Warsaw Community High School in Warsaw, Indiana.

The attempt to shoehorn these kids into their Breakfast Club counterparts is problematic. (Judd Nelson wasn't a heartthrob… he was a criminal! Ally Sheedy was a basket case, not a rebel! C'mon!) Sure, the kids fit into different stereotypes and cliques that make up our memories of the high school experience, but by trying to mirror John Hughes' characters, the movie doesn't always follow the most interesting stories. Plus, because this is non-fiction, we often don't get satisfactory conclusions to the arcs they've chosen to highlight. You can feel the marketing pull in the case of Mitch in particular, who is presented as one of the five featured teens, but in reality was a supporting character introduced as part of Hannah's story, then pushed to the forefront when Burstein and/or the producers realized they needed a Judd Nelson (even though, as I just mentioned, he doesn't fit the Judd Nelson archetype at all).

The documentary feels like a slightly classier version of reality TV, following teens throughout their senior year, inter-spliced with confessional footage that lets us know what's on their minds. Some have criticized the film for feeling manufactured, but Burstein and the teens featured have all sworn to its authenticity. I'm willing to believe that none of the moments of the film were set up or scripted, but the presentation feels so familiar that I understand why some believe it to be. Part of this is simply the result of the Observer Effect, in that the teens say and do things they may have not done were they not being filmed, and part of it is that these teens have grown up in the era of reality TV, and thus have changed their actions accordingly. In particular, queen bee Megan seems to be auditioning for The Hills at times, while at other times you have to wonder if different supporting players didn't attach themselves to feature characters like Hannah and Jake for a shot to be on camera.

With all that said, the film still succeeds more than it fails. The candid glimpses it gives into the lives of teens can be very affecting, offering a glimpse into the pressures facing teens these days without the alarmist spin Hollywood usually puts on these things. A group of five Caucasian teens from Indiana might not be an ideal cross-section of America that could represent all of the problems facing high schoolers these days (the kids all seem to be at least middle class economically, with some being upper-middle), but their lives do have their own struggles to overcome. It's senior year for these kids, so the pressure of the next phase of their lives is at the forefront of their lives. But more than that, the film shows how entrenched the cliques and roles of high school can become, a reality I found myself relating to even though I'm a dozen years removed from their experience, and I imagine all viewers can no matter how long it has been since they roamed the halls of high school. Even if it might alarm you how much easier and instant it is to destroy a kid's place in the social hierarchy in the age of texting, email, and social networking, the basics behind it have been a part of teenage life for generations.

Part of the conceit of the film is that everyone can relate to one of the five characters. Personally, I didn't fit into any of these five archetypes in high school (and instead fit into the more common, but rarely talked about, anonymous archetype: the kids who aren't popular or geeks, but rather fit in the middle mostly unnoticed), but I found Hannah to be the most interesting character. As an artsy type who wants to move to San Francisco to become a director, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Hannah is the character Nanette Burstein most identified with, which could explain why she got the most favourable edit. However, Burstein does make a solid attempt to present her main characters in a rounded fashion (well, four of the five anyway, as Mitch isn't actually a featured character), making sure to show the quieter side of princess Megan, who opens up about a family tragedy when not actively trying to destroy former friends seemingly for no other reason than to assert her dominance.

The quieter character moments when the kids seem less like they're playing for the cameras and more like they're being themselves are when the movie excels. There are also some interesting developments that push the story into interesting places. But overall, the film's need to go in a more marketable direction works to its detriment. Instead of following the more interesting characters or moments in greater depth, it's forced to keep trying to establish its main characters, even when they're not offering enough to justify their position. The film feels like an upgrade from MTV reality shows, so if you enjoy those but feel guilty for doing so, definitely give American Teen a shot. It's just too bad that the footage may have been better served if it HAD been a reality TV show instead of a feature film documentary.

DVD Review: The DVD is presented in widescreen with a 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track, but as a lower budget documentary, you're not watching it for its visual or audio presentation, and as such, I don't really have anything to say about either. It neither looked or sounded good or bad enough to notice.

As for special features, they're pretty standard. There are post-screening interviews with the now college-aged cast titled "Pop Quiz" (either post festival screenings or the theatrical release), where they quickly update us on what life is like now that they've been in a movie. There's a section of short interview scenes that didn't make the final cut featuring Hannah titled "Hannah Blogs" that aren't actually blogs (or vlogs) but were probably posted as such in the films viral campaign. None are particularly interesting, but do provide more thoughts from the film's most articulate cast member (and further the notion that Hannah was Burstein's favourite). Then there's the deleted scenes (or MORE deleted scenes when you consider that the "Hannah Blogs" feature are also deleted scenes), which, like most deleted scenes featured on DVDs merely show that they deserve to be deleted scenes (especially in the case of one that features Jake at the end of a date, which goes on forever and illustrates why many of life's moments aren't compelling enough to be shown in movies). Finally, the DVD has five character-specific trailers which basically just cuts up the main trailer by character.

None of these special features are particularly special, so one's decision about whether or not to acquire the DVD should solely be based on one's opinion of the film itself; and given my above rating, the best I can recommend is to check this out as a rental.